As the World Turns: Little League Edition (July 16, 2013)

Written by John Malone, editor

Pennsylvania

We have a couple stops to make in the Keystone state, and it begins with…. Keystone. The team to watch in Pennsylvania proved it some more tonight with a 25-2 victory in the Section 3 championship game. This team scores runs like no other in the country right now. The state tournament should not be as easy. Warwick Twp was the team last year doing that to everyone and they faltered in states. We shall see what Keystone does.

Now, we move onto my pet peeve of all pet peeves. Pool Play. I absolutely hate single-division pool play. In the regionals, they shouldn't have semifinals. It should just be a championship and in every single other level of play it should be outlawed when followed by single elimination. Read previous rants on the subject HERE and HERE to show how long I've been saying this and why. On to 2013… DuBois outscored its opponents in Section 1 47-4 in three games. The other three teams all went 1-2. For some reason, one of those teams deserved to play a championship game. After an injury to the starting catcher and 13 walks, DuBois’ season ended with a 10-8 loss. It’s really a shame. Rant over until the next victim of poor scheduling.

Texas

Sweeny beat perennial Texas East power Lamar National in districts and instantly became a team on the radar. They easily rolled through sectionals and now head to the state tournament. They beat Halletsville 12-2 on Monday night in the championship game. Here’s a team photo for those of you who like to analyze team size. 

Georgia

Warner Robins American is back in the state tournament for the millionth time and I’m sure they’re the favorite. They lost in the regional final a season ago and return one player from that team. The coaching staff continues to be very similar year after year. It’s one of the reasons WRALL continues to be so consistent. Everyone wanting to play there is probably another one. Another famous Georgia name is in the tournament and that’s Columbus Northern, the 2006 LLWS champions.

California

Sherman Oaks reached another step towards a berth in the West Regional with an 8-0 victory over Burbank. Noah Taylor didn’t allow a hit through 5 2/3 innings, but couldn’t finish the game due to pitch count. SOLL broke the game open with a big five-run fourth inning fueled by three home runs.

New York

We’re down to the final 12 teams in New York with section finals wrapping up by Friday. The 6-team state tournament begins next week. Auburn won Section 1 with three wins in three days in single elimination. They’ll have nearly 10 days off. Why they needed only three days for sectionals is beyond me.

Horseheads will face New Hartford in the Section 2 final on Wednesday. Horseheads has dominated the entire tournament but trailed 1-0 on Tuesday for the first time. They responded with an 11-2 win. Burnt Hills is the favorite in Section 3, but faces the best program in its section for the title, Colonie. Pearl River is a heavy favorite in the Section 4 championship game which is also Wednesday against New Rochelle Central. In Section 5, South Shore American awaits a challenger for its final on Thursday, and in Long Island’s Section 6, Massapequa Coast dominated pool play and will take its chances in a single elimination final against Smithtown National on Friday. Coast is potentially the state tournament favorite.

Radio Show

As most of you know, we dropped some big news today. We'll be hosting a one-hour radio show about the Little League tournament throughout the country on Sundays at 1pm, starting this week. The show will be available LIVE on WFAS 1230 News/Talk AM radio in New York and LIVE online at www.wfasam.com. They have an iHeart Radio station, and we'll have the recorded shows right here on the blog, so make sure you tune in and give us a call.

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Little League Road Trip: Sunday July 14, 2013

Written by John Malone, editor

New Jersey

I made my way to neighboring New Jersey on Sunday four games in the Section 1 and Section 3 tournaments (read full recaps of the NJ Section 1 games HERE). Wayne National showcased one of the top pitchers/athletes I’ve seen in the early going this year in Dominic Cancellieri. I’m not going to say he’s Par-Troy East’s Emil Matti (LINK) yet, but he’s that type of player. Wayne’s opponent, Lackawanna, was very solid, and had good size throughout their lineup. They had the short end of the stick pitching-wise to start the tournament, but definitely can make a run.

Par-Troy East, the 2013 edition, isn’t the same team as last year’s Mid-Atlantic champions…obviously. They’re still a team worthy of the state tournament and could definitely win the Section 1 bracket. They have a tough matchup with Washington Township on Monday. Tyler Grieco is like the hulk at and behind the plate.

Next, I went to the shore to see Section 3 play and saw the potential New Jersey state champions, Nottingham. One of the more storied Little Leagues in the entire East region, Nottingham looks like it has all the pieces. They have three or four great to good arms, big bats throughout the lineup, and solid defense. They have “the look.” They pounded a scrappy Eatontown team 10-1 on Sunday night. Eatontown has an excellent ace pitcher who exited the game with 49 pitches in the third inning trailing just 1-0. After his departure, Nottingham smoked five straight hits to take a 7-0 lead.

Utah

Believe it or not, we have our first state champion already. Dixie Little League of Saint George, UT annihilated the competition to win its first state championship since 1997. Dixie made a great run in the regional that year. We’ll have a post all about Dixie this week.

Connecticut

Watch out New England region, there’s potential for MAJOR crowds at the regional tournament this year. Edgewood Little League of Bristol, Connecticut dominated the District 5 championship and advances to the Section 1 tournament this week in CT. If Edgewood can navigate its way to a state championship, we could see record crowds every night in August.

New York

Sectionals have kicked off throughout the state. On Long Island, Massapequa Coast continues to dominate pool play with a 3-0 record, outscoring opponents 28-1. They’re the lone unbeaten team on the island now. In New York City, Peter Stuyvesant from the east side of Manhattan faces perennial-power South Shore American of Staten Island in the winners’ bracket final. Pearl River is rolling through its section in the northern suburbs and Burnt Hills and Saratoga American are on a collision course in the capital region. In Central New York, Horseheads continues to rout opponents. After beating District 6 foes 100-2 over six games, Horseheads opened the Section 2 tournament with an 11-1 victory.

Pennsylvania

There’s been some dominance early on in the home of the Little League World Series. Keystone continues to roll with another barrage of home runs. West Point, perennially challenger, has two big victories, and DuBois hit seven home runs today in a 21-1 victory. Lionville has also beat up its opponents in its respective sectional tournament. The state finals will be a dandy in PA.

Southern California

The record for most home runs on Sunday most likely goes to Santa Maria Southside. In SoCal’s Section 1 tournament, SMS hit ten bombs including a walk-off to advance to the championship game in the winners’ bracket with an 18-16 victory in seven innings over Goletta Valley South. Let’s hope they have pitching available.

Sherman Oaks has competed well as 10-year olds and 11-year olds and even took home a state championship. Both times it faced Burbank in the Section 2 finals. Today they met in the second round of the tournament and it was a barn burner. Sherman Oaks came away with an 11-5 victory behind three home runs from Jake Robbins. It was a back-and-forth affair for five innings before SOLL took a 6-5 lead and opened the game up late.

Northern California

Belmont Redwood Shores made a statement over always tough San Ramon in its sectional opener and then continued that trend with a mercy-rule victory to advance to the title game. I still have my eyes on Santa Cruz American who face off with former district foes, Gilroy, on Monday.

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Early Teams To Watch Around The Country

Throughout most of the big states in the country, it’s sectional week. Everyone is a district champion from here on out. Without seeing the teams in person it’s nearly impossible to predict who is strong based on score-watching, but past history of leagues, districts, sections, etc is a decent predictor. Success as 10-year olds and 11-years olds helps too. Based on what we’ve seen so far, here’s some notes on the big surprises and disappointments around the country.

Biggest Surprise

Pennsylvania: Keystone Little League. The boys from Lock Haven were the darlings of the Little League World Series in 2011, and their younger compatriots are trying to equal the feat. Keystone didn’t win the district championship when they were 10 years old and they didn’t win the district championship when they were 11 years old. In fact, Loyalsock won the state title from Keystone’s district last year. So what has Keystone accomplished thus far?

Keystone has wins of 26-0, 21-1, 27-1, 14-1, and 14-3. That final game was over Loyalsock. They have yet to play a 6-inning game. In five games, they have 25 home runs. Definitely a team to watch.

Biggest Disappointment

Tennessee: Goodlettsville Little League. The league that made it all the way to the Promised Land last season was primed for another big run. Goodlettsville has come out of nowhere to become a Little League power with dominant champions at every level now, but not so fast. South Nashville Little League had something to say about it and beat Goodlettsville twice to win the district title.

Teams to Watch

New England: One of the smaller regions in terms of size and colder regions in terms of climate, New England actually packs a good punch in baseball and is tough to read this early. South Burlington Vermont almost pulled off one of the more dramatic upsets in regional history last year and they return 5-6 players from that team. They won’t be a favorite if they get to the regional, but expect them to get there.

Others: North Andover East MA, Lincoln RI, Westport CT, Saco ME, and Rye NH.

Mid-Atlantic: There are more leagues in the Mid-Atlantic region than any other region in the country. It’s extremely hard to get out of certain states, such as New Jersey. The best teams don’t win the region most years. Right now, Nottingham NJ looks like a good bet to make a run. One of the most storied programs in the East, Nottingham reached the LLWS back in 1992. They rolled easily through a tough district and have a good schedule for the sections. If they escape New Jersey, watch out.

Others: Massapequa Coast NY, West Point PA, Berlin MD, Capitol City DC, and Canal DE.

Southeast: The Southeast has become the land of Warner Robins GA. The league is monstrous. People move there to play baseball and they love their sports. WRALL challenges for regional titles year after year out of Georgia now. It's amazing to someone from the northeast to see a league threaten for a regional title every single year. We're used to more depth up here, I guess. Either way though, Georgia Little League is certainly on a high right now. Plant City FL might be a team to watch early on. They won the state title a year ago and Florida is always strong.

Southwest: Texas and Louisiana are the powers in this region and both states have its share of great programs. Watch for the Lafayettes and South Lake Charles’ from Louisiana and in Texas watch for Midland Northern in the West and Pearland or Sweeny in the East.

West: Southern California is always packed with talent. The winner is a LLWS favorite right off the bat. The team on the tip of everyone’s tongues for right now is Sherman Oaks. There’s a long way to go though. In Northern California, Santa Cruz’s name has popped up with some big time pitching, MLB pedigrees, and big bats.

The Northwest, Great Lakes, and Midwest don’t have a ton of states with sectionals, so their district tournaments are barely finished. It’s still way too early to even pretend to have teams to watch in these regions currently. We’ll get back to them later on.

We’ll have tons of updates early on from the East, especially New York and New Jersey in the next week. We’d love to get contributors from other regions as well.

Do you have blog ideas and want me to write about them? Do you want to contribute content to the blog yourself? If so, shoot me an email at section1guycom@aol.com.

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